


A fresh start

by mightowl



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Decision Making, M/M, Post TFA, a lil kissing, angry bickering, killing base, proving guts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-14 13:05:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5744935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mightowl/pseuds/mightowl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux opened a drawer filled with tons of black uniforms folded neatly in the same pattern. He smiled sourly. Most people would have had some personal stuff in there, pictures, letters, clothing that reflected who they were… He decided he wouldn´t need anything of that where he would go, lest to say that he ever had those things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was powered by a really inspirational shower on a Monday I haven´t slept at all (several headcanons) and a bowl of nutritious fruit salad.  
> Thanks to Eruntane for editing my bad habits in writing out. You´re the best.
> 
> Have fun!

Hux opened a drawer filled with tons of black uniforms folded neatly in the same pattern. He smiled sourly. Most people would have had some personal stuff in there, pictures, letters, clothing that reflected who they were… He decided he wouldn´t need anything of that where he would go, lest to say that he ever had those things. He shut it with a bang and turned to his opened suitcase. Various amounts of currency piled in the center of it. Most of it would probably be useless but he still wasn´t sure about where to go. Probably a bad condition, but he didn’t even know how much time was left for him in this universe. Years, months, hours… He stuffed the money into his coat-pockets and closed the lid of his suitcase firmly. Suddenly his fingers tightened around the metallic corners turning his already white knuckles into an unhealthy shade of blue.  
The boy was different since the day they all failed. He could walk behind you and you could feel, no already taste the uncontrolled force spilling from him like an unsealed champagne bottle. Instead he left a bitter taste on everyone’s tongue that wasn´t bearable for anyone. It was probably just a matter of time until the force devoured him, leaving nothing but a pile of ash.  
Hux straightened his back and made no attempt to turn around, not wanting to show any sign of fear.

“So 3 hours 24 minutes and about 20 seconds it is then”, he stated flatly. He could watch Kylo´s face in a tiny mirror attached to the wall. He seemed furious and breathed heavily while he stood in Hux´s quarter-door scrunching his nose making that scar that was forming from his brow to chin look like it was dancing. Did he ran all the way here?  
“If that is the time you need to get back to your place on the command bridge you should better hurry or-“  
“I´m not going back,” Hux cut him off and in an instant he felt a hard grip on his shoulder yanking him around.  
“They are awaiting your orders, General!” The last word was already spat in his face. His confidence suddenly rose at the thought of Kylo not knowing about his session with Snoke this morning. So it wouldn’t be Kylo, who killed him, but probably Phasma. He was relieved about the fact. No Kylo and more hours to get the hell off this place.  
“You really do not know.” Hux had to fight back a nervous laugh, while Kylo, not understanding anything his opponent said, clenched his fist as hard as he could in the front of Hux shirt.  
“Get back in command, I say.” Hux placed a hand on top of Kylo´s fist making him loosen his grip a little.  
“I had a meeting with Snoke this morning. If you had attended you would know he discharged me, from everything and this planet. I was about to leave at this very moment. The loss we´ve made at the Starkiller base was obnoxiously big for a General of my expertise and I accepted his offer to narrow down my disgrace and the amount of trust Snoke had in me that was truly wasted.” For a while Kylo seemed too busy stomaching the news he just got and stared blankly to the ground his mouth opening and closing like a fish not getting out any word.  
Hux pulled the feather-light empty suitcase from his bed assuming the conversation was over when Kylo suddenly broke the silence with a hoarse voice.  
“It´s not only you who failed. It´s me as well! I could have gotten my hands on that girl and I lost to her. To her! She was not trained at all in the powers of the force but she used it somehow.” He draw in a long breath and shook his head. “Snoke can’t dispose of you. That´s not the end of it. Do you think he was going to dispose of me, too if I had been present?” he asked in shock; his sudden fear eluding from him in shock waves of force that made Hux´s skin crawl like there where tiny ants all over his body. He grabbed Kylos arm and slightly pressed it soothing for a tiny moment before he withdraw returning to his usual strict mannerism towards the younger man.  
“He´s not letting go of you anytime soon. I don´t know about the connection between you two but he won´t kill you for not being able to control the force. That are no news to anyone.” Kylo´s eyebrows drew closer at this, clearly being gut punched by that.  
“Apparently I thought you came to execute me right here at this very moment.”  
“Maybe I should.” Kylo´s voice sounded soft but his trembling hands showed clear signs of a threat that was just made.  
“Don´t disappoint him, Kylo” were the last words before Hux walked past knocking their shoulders together like an invitation.  
He couldn’t remember if anything else was said after that because he did not look back just heard the echoes of his boots enclosing around him before he reached the elevator bringing him to the surface.

 

He leaned against one of the smooth walls letting him rest the back of his head against the cool material. The sickish light from above made his skin look green like a corpse already.  
He thought about Phasma awaiting him, pointing a gun at him when the doors opened soiling the cabin with his blood. Closing his eyes he let out a deep sigh.  
Suddenly he heard a squeal above him. No, underneath. Wait, everywhere? He pushed himself from the wall staggering into the middle of the cabin struggling to keep his balance. He almost fell when the cabin moved down again with a jerk and his bowels dropped several levels. This thing wasn´t working on normal speed at all.  
“No, I want up.” He said more to himself unable to move, breath hitching now and then in his throat. What was happening? His eyes darted from side to side, waiting.  
Waiting for what? The deathly blow? His mind was working on its edge to escape this most perfect prison. He really should have taken the stairs. Nobody used them anyway.  
Finally his ride came to a stop. It would have been normal if the doors would slip open with a soft puff of air but they didn´t. The metal got literally forced open with an unbearable screech and then Kylo Ren, wearing his mask again stepped in but not facing him.  
“You will follow me.” Was the only thing he said and then he set the cabin back in motion. There was something crawling up Hux´s feet paralyzing every inch of his body part by part until he had not even control about his breathing. In fact he wanted to scream out his fear being completely controlled but when they stepped out on the lowest level no patrolling unit seemed to find something odd about those two walking next to each other. They were probably just about to visit Snoke in the vault. Nothing unusual. But the General seemed to be weirdly out of shape speaking of the amount of sweat glistening on his forehead.  
Hux heart was about to explode in his chest when he realized where he was heading. What was this all about? Was this Ren´s idea to get him back or did he receive an order from the Surpreme Leader himself? He wanted to gulp but even that wasn´t in his control anymore. He was feeling sorry for everyone who felt the force ravaging with their bodies unable to do something against it. Feeling so helpless.  
They entered the room where a bright white light shone from the ceiling, too shiny to spot its origin. “Like you are a god to bathe in the glory of your questionable innocence.” He wanted to snort but everything that came out was a weird cough. His kidnapper must´ve loosened his deathly grip on him while he approached the light halting an inch in front of it and put off his helmet and hood. The light made his eyesockets appear empty, just some   
deep dark spots making him look like a skull.

“Great Surpreme Leader Snoke!” His voice was loud but he wasn´t shouting at all, just demanding. Hux expected something more furious. It took a while of staring up to that light before they heard a booming voice echoing out of every directions.  
“I can´t recall that you are in the position to call me to your liking and also bring this failure of a General in front of my eyes again.”  
Kylo´s cloak was moving even though he was standing still but his hands and feet showed his discomfort while fidgeting just slightly.  
“My apologies for not taking part at your first visit this morning but I need to have a word about your decisions lately. You called the General a failure and want his departure? I have to tell you that I am a failure as well and you should treat me the same way. For I was not able to get the droid and the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. The girl is probably already on her way to claim her training by the very Skywalker himself.”  
There was silence then a flickering of light before the hologram appeared in front of them. Kylo Ren took a step towards it and the force he used to keep Hux in place left. Making him fall face front with a loud thud to a ground causing dust to come up all around him. A soft groan of pain left his lips. Nobody else seemed to notice him breathing hard and getting back to his senses again carefully trying out every limb of his.  
“What seldom words of yours. Clearly you can find a solution for your lack of success if you ask for forgiveness?”  
“I do. The force in that girl was terribly strong from the beginning and I can´t think about walking up to her and meet her again after she had her training.” He paused to think. “But I actually HAVE a solution. Skywalker will teach her just the light side of the force not wasting time to show her what the dark side is like. But me… I mean I could use both sides if I wanted to.”  
Hux got back on his feet brushing the dust off his clothes and staggered up to the young man reaching for his shoulder to lean on.  
“Wait, nobody attempted to combine the light and dark side at the same time for decades. By all means it will destroy you if you try to use it in your mental state. And this is clearly not what the Dark side’s purpose is. You´re turning us grey, Ren!” Kylo shot him an angry glare and shook off his hand resting on his shoulder. Completely ignoring Hux´s objection he stated: “Maybe we need to learn from our miserable past, that milestone Darth Vader set for us to move on and use every possibility. That’s the reason why you still have me, right? Because I haven´t grown to my full potential yet. Please, let me lead us into another successful era but I need reliable allies at my side.”

“You want Hux back in command?” Snoke simply asked. Hux couldn´t process what was happening right now. That boy who worshipped Darth Vader, his grandfather, wanted to turn his plan to rule the galaxy on his own into an entire new plan that went against all of their beliefs? Did he just watch him grow a pair of balls? Did he just save him from the inevitable death?  
“That´s exactly what I want. Trust me in my decisions, I feel like I should take more responsibility in this matter.” Unblinking he stared up to the hologram eying the tiny men in front of him with curiosity.  
“I give you permission. Keep me in mind while training and report your achievements to me. You may leave now Commander.”  
Kylo Ren made a quick bow turned and strode off, leaving Hux alone with their leader.  
“Is that your influence that’s showing, General Hux?”  
“I- I really don´t know”, he stammered to his own disbelief and looked at the tip of his shoes for an appropriate answer.  
“He made that up on his own I -“, he lifted his head and noticed that the hologram was already gone and sighed in relief. Today was not his day to die and somehow he was glad to stay in this bunches of bastards. He made his way back to the bridge and found it empty.

 

On one of the monitors a memo was opened:  
To discuss the matter of our lack of a General I will hold a meeting in section 2D for all authorities.  
Come at once.  
PHASMA

 

“Well, no need for that.” He said to himself and got to his very own control panel clearing his throat before laying his pointer on one button and leaning in to the microphone.  
“Postpone your little crisis meeting, Phasma. I´m back at the bridge and need my people back for a briefing of my own. Thank you.” There was no response from her but he knew she listened.  
“Here you are. I thought you would be more grateful that I bailed you out back there.” He almost groaned at the voice that got back to a sneer.  
“Bailing me out? You kissed his ass and told him you shit on his decisions. I´m somewhat proud of you for this little act of yours and that Snoke accepted your offer. He has an eye on you now, that´s for sure.”  
Kylo just smiled in the most arrogant way Hux ever saw him smile. “The look on your face was worth it. I thought you would die of a heart attack”, he mocked.  
“Watch out what you’re saying. You almost pissed yourself in front of him so now is not the time to act all tough. And when you ever use the force on your General again…” He gritted his teeth angrily not able to finish his sentence. Kylo just shrugged and came even closer still having that obnoxious smile on his face. “What? Usually I like to choke my victims but I don´t think you old man would´ve survived that.”  
“Seriously, I´m your senior in age and experience and still you behave like that, you stupid brat?”  
“Go on, show me your superior ways. I will not use the force to give you a chance.” With that he folded his arms behind his back still smiling, clearly making fun of him.  
“I will make you shut up, trust me”, he said; his voice low and dangerously growling.  
“Show me.”

Hux dug his nails furiously in the other man´s shirt and dragged him to his control panel until his own heels hit the computer-front. He quickly lifted his hand. Kylo made an attempt to dodge a blow of his right. But instead Hux left grabbed his chin dragging him closer to his face. His right hand buried into the thick hair of his forehead, he closed the distance between their faces. Kylo let out a startled cry of surprise and Hux used the opportunity to lick into his open mouth.  
He groaned low in his throat while his plan formed on itself. He lifted himself on top of the computer bringing his legs around Kylo´s waist. Not really caring how intimate he got because this very man also ignored his privacy a while ago using the force on him.  
“Read my mind now. Oh what? You can´t?” Smiling into the one sided kiss he felt a hand pressed onto his thigh, feeling his muscles there and after a moment a strong arm slipped around his waist, pulling him even closer to that broad chest.  
Finally, finally Kylo let go and leaned in. Hux pulled one of his legs between their chests, unnoticed and let Kylo have fun with him for a second and then violently kicked his foot into Kylo’s chest.  
“Ugh!” Kylo almost tripped over his own coat when he stumbled backwards, forced to let go of Hux There he stood; face flushed in the most endearing way, eyes wide in confusion while stared at Hux like he just burned his grandfather’s mask he was loving so much.  
“That was boring. Try better next time.” He got up from the panel, making a step towards Kylo who wiped his mouth like they just did the most disgusting thing in the world. But his face turned to an even darker red and he wasn’t able to form words doing that fish-mouth thing again.  
He turned and stormed out and ran over at least three of Hux´s men coming back to work and looking pretty surprised.  
“T’was great to have a word with you Commander Ren!” he shouted after him and was oh so pleased with this reaction. But he had to admit that he felt a little bit guilty breaking their contact too abrupt. The little press on his thigh was quite enjoyable after all. In thoughts he picked his lip with his fingers. Sadly it wasn´t the same.  
“Great to have you back, General Hux.” One of his man held out his hand and he shook it pleasantly.  
“Yes, me too.” And that was probably the only time they saw an honest smile form upon his face.  
There was so much to do in the next weeks. Snoke shouldn´t have put him back in command this quick. “Poor son, Kylo. You really set something in motion.”


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux tries to get Phasma on his boat and spies on Kylo. I suck at this read. Read for yourself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot how hard it is to write while you have responsibilities. I´m lifting my hat to all those who can write frequently without complaining.  
> But here it is, the sencond chapter I was mumbling about:

Phasma sat on one end of the empty canteen. She always got here to enjoy breakfast on her own when all of the troops already left and the only sound of clattering cutlery was her own. Also she could just take her filled tray from the counter and head off to one of the long benches, she didn’t.  
Martha was a darling. She never talked a lot, but she always knew what was right for breakfast. Phasma was about to dug her spoon into her not really tasty looking bowl of oatmeal when an intruder interrupted her peaceful morning routine.   
He filled two cups of coffee at the counter and took his time while he headed into Phasma´s direction. He straddled the opposite side of her bench and put one of the white cups on the table to push it in her direction. She chewed unimpressed and after she gulped it down she reached for the cup that was just offered to her from Hux.

 

“Since when does our General fancy our nutritious breakfast?”  
He still faced away from her watching the empty food counter. He took a sip of his coffee, his face turned into a human raisin when the hot liquid hit his taste buds.  
Phasma had to stifle a laugh.  
“They don´t serve real coffee beans to the troops. Way to expensive. Your very orders. This is basically just-“  
“I don´t want to hear what it is. Also I didn´t came for the coffee.” He cut her off reaching for the tiny milk cannikin and filled his cup to the brim to make this awful stuff more bearable.  
Phasma seemed to have no problem drinking it black.  
“You came for spying on my pretty face then.” Her hand brought up her shiny helmet to the desk gently rubbing off a little bit of dust. “There are always some new troop members who are curious, I thought you´ve already gotten past that state?”  
“I did and I like you best with that thing on. Makes you more official. But I´m here on a personal matter.”  
“I´m not here all on my own to talk about feelings or to make friends, Hux.” She gestured with her spoon across the empty hall.  
“Me neither.” He put his left leg over the bench and faced her, stapling his hands under his chin.   
“Did you get instructions to kill me after the Star Killer Base incident?” She put another spoon full of stuff into her mouth and chewed calmly trying to get what Hux was up to. But he stared at her unblinkingly, as if he just asked about the medical condition of her troops.   
She pushed her tray away from her placing her arm on the table.   
“There has been an order to zero out General Hux but it was withdrawn in about a few hours. I wanted you to get off the base and make preparations. It would have been a perfect exercise for my newest. Track down, surround target, and take down. Nice and easy. Instead somebody decided he likes you too much and saved your butt from extermination. Wonder who that was?” She already knew the answer, one could easily tell by her mocking tone.  
Hux somehow couldn´t hide a smile. Phasma was ruthless in every way possible but extremely good at it. Quite charming he had to admit.  
“Imagine you would have to get along with a whole new General.”  
“Easy, that would have been me.”  
Hux raised his cup in agreement and took another gulp of his thinned out plonk.  
“You´re the weirdest sister I never had.”  
“You too, brother. Also where is our little brooding kid of evil? Haven´t seen him in a while.”  
With one hand Hux dug in his coat pockets and drew out his little clear notepad typing and swishing around the surface before he put it right between them two. They both leaned in to watch a tiny red spot blinking on a base layout.  
Phasma´s eyebrows rose in amazement and she pointed at that little dot.  
“Did you take him to the vet and chipped him?”  
“No,” he smiled and leaned back proudly as far as he could without dropping off his bench. “I put it in his belt and he never noticed. I don´t know what to do without it. He leaves whenever he wants and knows all the good hiding places in the facilities. I thought about taking the master key from him but that would just make him mad.”  
“Anyway, you should grab him and drag him up from the ground level ASAP. The troops are getting nervous because there were no specific orders in weeks. Do you know what the Leader is up to?” she got up and was about to put her tray away.  
“There won´t be orders from Snoke anytime soon.”  
“Why is that?”  
He got up as well and walked to her feeling like David facing Goliath.  
“Snoke gave Kylo Ren the permission to make up for his failure about getting the droid and to Luke Skywalker. But it seems like he needs more time. By the way, I was thinking about the whole Star Killer Base operation as well. Didn´t you have as much concerns about it as me wanting to speak up for this disastrous plan. It was destined to backfire at us. We could do better than that, do more damage to the rebels. Don´t you think?”  
She hid her real answer under her helmet just saying briskly: “Stay in your line, General.” And left.

 

Hux stood there just a moment longer. He needed at the very least Phasma´s troops on his side to face Snoke. He hoped for her approval, her own inner drive to go on but he seemed to be wrong about her. She was not going to disobey her orders in any case. There was no one at his back but maybe Ren and his talking about using the dark and light force at the same time. How powerful could he become and was it even worth the wait?  
He wasn´t giving in this easily. No one on this base was working on his full potential and he would change that. Maybe that meant he had to rip out the plant he raised so gently and replace it in some new more rich soil to make it to full bloom. He headed out to the ground levels.

 

 

He passed his quarters and halted in front of a heavy door. He knew that it was some sort of a training room back in the days but further adjustments made it useless and way too small and turned it into a barely visited storeroom for weapons and other outdated equipment. It was nice to have old things, to know they could be of use someday and were still in reach. But this was really just a dumpster. No one really catalogued what was inside. Sometimes Ren´s little dot appeared here as it was today on his notepad. He shook his head. This was probably the place where he got all that Darth Vader stuff and nobody cared about that he stole it. Who would dare to speak up to him?  
“Me”, he blankly said to himself and pushed down the door latch. It wasn´t opening. Clearly locked. He placed his hand next to the latch trying to open it with the implanted master key between his thumb and pointer.  
No reaction.  
This door hadn´t been upgraded since forever. So his eyes searched for another mechanism. He found a little box on the wall right up the floor and tried to pry it open with his hands. But it was no use as well. After a while of thinking he assumed that it would be best to use more suitable tools.  
He kicked it and the lit budged. He put his finger in the little gap and opened it. There was just a little lever he needed to pull up and the door opened finally.  
When he stepped in his hand wandered along the wall to put the electricity back on. After some flickering the Room flooded with light. To his left the room was full with shelves loaded with blasters, heavy weapons, old grenades and other small ammunition but his attention was drawn to the old already corroding control panel. The speakers were coated in dust probably coughing badly if they would be ever used again. The cladding around was mostly rotting away so he could see dozens of wires that were attached. A pain in the ass if that needed planned maintenance.  
He suddenly noticed that the glass that had been giving the commander a good view to the training grounds was vibrating. The window was way too dirty to see what was going on behind and he placed his palm against it.  
There was something behind it.

 

A gush of dust shook off letting in some more light but it was still too smeared to see. He made his way to one of the doors clearly leading to the room behind it. He violently grabbed the hand rail of the metal stair creaking alarmingly and watched the scenery below.  
Kylo Ren was standing in the center. His chest bare and one of his sides in a badly bruised fresh red. He lifted a bunch of metallic rubbish laying in the very corner of the room, his dark powers filling the room with a pulsing deep hum. Hux was already used to that strange sensation. He never really thought of himself as force sensitive. That would have been impossible. It wasn´t running in his blood at all. But he made himself sensitive of everything that was around him. Other people were just blind to him or not paying attention or too over-stimulated by too many information flooding them at once. Or just completely dumb to tell if someone had it or not.   
Ren lifted the other hand and an old rusty turbine rose a few centimeters from the ground, rubble trickling out between the vent-blades. He seemed to have trouble raising it and his triceps shook with spasms. He gritted his teeth like he actually physically moved the object.  
The other arm seemed perfectly fine balancing the stuff in the air. Actually it felt weird to Hux as well. If there were multiple things manipulated, the humming would normally add up in his head but this was different.  
In fact he felt something like a little pinch, when he looked at the turbine. Was Ren really using the dark and light side separately?  
Hux hands let go off the railing and he quickly made his way downstairs. He didn’t bother to be quiet and Ren´s head spun around in confusion.  
He stopped paying attention to what he was actually doing, when the other man suddenly started running towards him shouting. It took way too long for him to process the said words before he could assemble them to: “Dodge, you idiot!”   
He was tackled to the ground before he could move on his own. The turbine met the other things with an enormous crash right where he stood a second ago. His heart pounded heavily knowing he could have been smashed between those …

“Fucking hell”, he heard someone swear right above him bringing him back to reality. General Hux was kneeling above him eyeing the pile of metal crushed up beyond all recognition.  
“Get off me!” Was Ren´s first thing to say followed by helpless waving of his arms and legs. Hux´s head spun around to him, glaring down.  
“If you’re looking to get killed, you’re doing a hell of a good job.”  
Ren´s body seemed to function again and he brought some more decent centimeters between their faces by sliding back.  
“I was perfectly fine, before you came in like a horde of Reeks.”  
He stumbled to his feet letting his chin fall to his chest and took a deep breath while walking up and down frantically to ease down the panic that was still rushing through his veins.  
Hux swiped his dust covered clothes with a sour smile.   
“I suppose you were perfectly fine the last 42 times as well?” Ren´s face blushed a deep red for a moment trying to cover up the worst bruise on his ribs. “Besides you´ve never really seen a Reek, right?”  
“Of course I did”, he stated hesitantly and somewhat sheepishly.  
“So what were you doing exactly?”  
“I trained.”  
“No, what were you doing? The things you did to the turbine weren´t normal.” He gestured towards said thing still in disbelief.  
“That’s the light side. I haven´t used it in a while.”  
“It´s still strong in you.”  
“No!” His shouting echoed from the walls.  
A shouting Kylo Ren wasn´t any more impressive to him than a dog barking. He just ignored that most of the time.  
“But you admit that you just used the dark and light side against each other? And the result is this pile.”  
“It´s like pushing two north poles of a magnet together. If you can make them touch!” Ren smacked one fist into his open hand. “I need the energy that´s set free after that.”  
Hux crossed his arms in deep thought shaking his head.   
“You´re talking about an explosion by literally forcing those two sides together, assuming they are the same side of a medal. But aren´t they two opposite sides of a medal? Weren´t you talking about the light side tugging at you whenever you use the force? Doesn’t it feel like it wants to be reunited again? Combined? All you did was repeating history in a smaller scale making the bad fight against the good.”  
“So you think I need to use both sides at the same time?”  
“Yes. Did you ever do that?”  
“Yes.” Ren stared into nowhere for a moment seeming far away from the here and now.  
“That’s way back in my training days with Skywalker. I used it one time.” He pressed his eyes shut rubbing his face, feeling the different texture of his scar.  
“Can you recall anything of that? How you started?” Hux wanted to be careful here. He never talked about his early training days with Luke Skywalker. In fact he had never talked this much to Kylo Ren in the whole time they knew each other.  
“He forbade me to use it. It was on accident. But so much stronger, Hux. You can´t imagine!” Ren grabbed Hux´s shoulder in excitement with the joy of a child on his face. Hux couldn´t help himself but smile as well. This was good, even better than he expected.  
“Skywalker that damn fool was too scared to even give it a name. I could see how hard he wanted to hit me for liking it that much. How horrified he was about how strong I would become. Stronger than he or any Jedi ever was.”  
Hux was sure that wasn´t the reason why Luke Skywalker would have been scared about his little Padawan but he needed Ren to have his little moment here. That was the reason Snoke chose him. Push that boy the right way and he was like an instrument. You could play him like a drum.  
“What was the first thing you did with the force?”  
“No, I´m definitely not starting from scratch here!”  
“Think!”  
“No, I won´t.”  
Hux rolled his eyes. “You can´t develop a new feeling for the force if you go on as usual. We saw how that turned out.”  
“Sand.” He said through gritted teeth after a moment.  
“What?”  
“Sand. In fact one single sand corn. I moved it around with a thing between the light and dark side and Skywalker almost lost his mind and shouted at me to never do it again.”  
“Because it was bad in their opinion,” Hux said to himself already working on the problem on how to get one single corn of sand in the base.  
“Maybe Luke changed a few points in the Jedi code during his reign but all of them are little crybabies afraid to take a step to the left or right.”  
“Something organic could do, right?”   
Ren just shrugged. “I guess.”   
Hux ran his hand through his red hair. It felt strange doing that with his gloves on but when he found one single strand of hair between his fingers he plucked it off satisfied.  
“Try this,” he said holding it out to Ren who just looked at it like he offered him a pile of dung of whichever species.  
“Make a knot in this without touching it our using your fingers. Let´s not focus about the very location you put it. Just one simple knot.”  
Ren turned away with his arms akimbo, clearly offended when Hux gave that thin thread another nudge in his direction. He finally snatched it from his fingers almost ripping it apart in the process and rolled it between his fingers. It was about 4 centimeters long but not thicker than his, the red defined by the bright colour of his skin. He took a deep breath and sat down on the floor placing that single strand of hair in front of him. Years ago he was in the same situation but it wasn´t Luke standing in front of him but Hux waiting for something to happen. It was like somebody watching him piss.  
“Turn around.”  
“What?” a broad smile appeared on Hux´s face.  
Ren growled. “I said turn around. I can´t do it when somebody is watching.”  
Hux just sighed and turned around, hiding his face in one of his palms and shaking his head, clearly trying not to laugh.  
Ren tried to relax again, not thinking about the fact that he´ll be definitely judged right now.

 

The room went completely silent for minutes except for Hux slowly pacing the room getting annoyed by the amount of time he wasted here when he suddenly heard painful groan behind. He took an interested peak over his shoulder.  
Ren was crawling on all fours now his arms buckling and trembling to keep his weight up heavily gasping for air. He coughed and blood sprayed from his head to the ground.  
“Are you okay?”  
Another groan was his answer before he met the ground with a heavy thud.  
Hux turned around in confusion poking Ren´s side with one of his boots. He wasn´t moving. In fact he didn´t know if he was breathing at all. Alarmed, Hux went to his knees just next to him pulling on his shoulders to move him on his side. He was impressed about how heavy that man was. When he tried to put him into a way saver position for a faint he accidentally flopped him on his back. He pushed Ren´s hair back out of his face and smeared his gloves with blood. Apparently he wasn´t coughing up blood but his nose was bleeding badly. Quickly he put his arms around Ren´s middle to get his torso into an upright position and grabbed his chin so the blood couldn’t clot up in his nose stuffing his nasal cavity. But hell that man was heavy!  
“Shit, Ren. Get to your senses!” he shouted more to himself. Even a slap on his cheek didn’t bring him back. Whatever was wrong with Ren he needed to get him to an infirmary or at least some place else.  
But how? That guy was way too heavy for him to carry him bridal style.  
“So much to your stupid disgusting breakfast, Phasma.”  
Also he couldn’t allow some of the troopers to see him like this. Half naked, his lights blown out completely the blood from his nose already drying on his chest. At least it seemed like the bleeding stopped for now. One good thing at a time, right?  
He tightened his arms around his chest again and dragged him about 5 meters to the next door out of the room. He needed a break after that and leaned Ren´s body limbs flailing like a rag doll against the door frame before he pushed the door open and looked for the next storm trooper on his patrol in the hall. It seemed to be manageable to get him to his own quarters where he had a little first aid kit under his bed without being seen by somebody.  
So he convinced the next patrol to get one level above and check on “the newbies” because they weren´t very reliable beforehand and “I already had an eye on them for weeks.”  
Path cleared. Let´s get to the physical part again.

 

At last he was able to dump Ren on his own bed without having a heart attack or bumping him into more things than necessary. He rubbed his aching arms and dropped into that one chair next to a small desk that was just occupied by a single pen and watched how Ren just lay there, still motionless on his back but breathing steadily eyes closed. He got up again and decided to clear up the bloody mess.  
He wet a paper tissue at the sink to his right. In the light he recognized the smear of blood on his sleeves wet and glistening on the fabric of his coat. With one quick motion he got rid of it draping it over his chair. He carefully sat down on the mattress right next to Ren. It was weird to be this close to him when he was vulnerable, but still he hesitated when he brought the wet tissue to his face. He almost expected him to wake up in a jump and break his nose. Nothing happened while he rubbed right above his upper lip to moisten up the already dried up blood. Every now and then his eyes twitched behind his closed lids. Good, so he was coming back. No need for the medical bay then.  
He also cleaned up his chest before he tossed the crumpled dirty tissue into the bin.   
He checked himself in the mirror and sighed when there was also blood on this shirt. So he got to his drawer and changed. Just when he was about to close the last button he heard Ren´s voice after a long while.  
“Did it.” Was the only thing he said and when Hux turned around it looked like he looked at his thumb and pointer holding something that looked like nothing.  
Of course the hair!  
“You sure you did not just do the knot with your hands while I turned around and then passed out for dramatic effects?” Hux said examining the knot perfectly centered in the middle of his own hair.  
“What?!” Ren screamed angrily.  
“Lay back again! You´re already getting all green. I don´t want you to puke all over here after you ruined one of my shirts and my coat with your obnoxious nosebleed.”  
Ren snuffled but refused to lay down again grabbing the harder edge of the mattress for support.  
He looked around and he stopped when his eyes fell on one of the good filled bookshelves with no titles on the back but roman numbers going form I to at least XII. “Is this your room?”  
“Well obviously. Nobody in this goddamn facility seemed to have a sense for good literature.”  
“That´s no literature that´s encyclopedia about…?”  
“The force.” He explained. “I keep the good stuff above you.” He nodded hat the single shelve above his bed but Ren wasn´t even taking a glimpse.  
“You´re studying the force, but can’t even use it?”  
“One needs a hobby in here, right?”  
Ren just shrugged. He carefully put one foot to the ground and pushed himself to his feet. Hux was ready to jump, for when he started to sway again.  
“Hux, one thing. Whatever progress or whatever failure I achieve in this whole force thing. Keep it for yourself or I´ll kill you in the most horrible way.”  
“Will do. But note that I will do the same thing to you when you tell anyone who isn´t authorized to know.”  
“Of course.” Ren said sneering.  
“Phasma was awaiting you a while ago for a meeting. You shouldn’t let her wait any longer.”  
“Fine.” He said before he turned around to leave.  
“Oh, and Kylo?”  
“Yes?”  
Hux eyed him from head to toe halting at his bare chest amused.  
“Get dressed first. It´s not appropriate to attend to meeting with a lady like this. Put on your helmet at least.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I plan to do this as my own interpretation on how the saga would end focusing on Kylo and Hux (maybe I will throw in resistance stuff as well, but not mainly). Two years for the next episode... I´m a slow writer... We can pass the time, right?  
> Be patient, I´ll be writing the next one somedayyyy


End file.
